News stories from Saturday July 12, 1980

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Richard Queen, the freed hostage, wal transferred from a Zurich hospital, where he was taken when he left Iran Friday, to a United States Air Force hospital in West Germany. Reporters were not permitted to enter the base, where a spokesman said that no reports on his condition, which is believed to involve neurological problems, were expected. [New York Times] Republicans arrived in Detroit for their party's 32nd convention. The only major item of suspense was Ronald Reagan's choice for Vice President, and he was reportedly still undecided. In the meantime, he issued an economic recovery program keyed to the automobile industry and aimed at using Detroit to underscore the nation's economic troubles under President Carter. [New York Times] The strategy of the Reagan campaign is to present the Republican presidential candidate as a problem solver and to wipe out the imputation that he is a rigidly conservative ideologue, Mr. Reagan's chief of staff says. But the conflict between Mr. Reagan's strongly conservative statements on such matters as military power, states' rights, taxation and welfare -- what has been called his "red-meat" language -- and the image of a pragmatic middle-of-the-roader his fall media campaign will project was evident throughout the primaries and up to the eve of the convention in Detroit. [New York Times] Support for equal rights has not died among some Republicans despite the defeat of a plank supporting the rights amendment by the Republican platform committee. Its supporters in the committee are pressing for a more favorable party position on the issue and are awaiting a reply from Ronald Reagan to a request that be meet with them for an exchange of views. [New York Times] Reimbursement for care of refugees from Cuba and Haiti by the federal government falls short of matching federal announcements a few weeks ago, according to state and local officials. They say financing formulas in fact offer considerably less money than the administration's statements on June 20 suggested, and fewer federal benefits than Indochina refugees have received. [New York Times] Moscow has been refurbished with yellow and pink paint, trees, flowers and miles of repaved roads in preparation for the opening of the Olympics Saturday. But not all the preparations are decorative. Security officials are going around all major places of work and study holding lectures on the need for vigilance against foreign subversion. They tell their audiences how to answer political questions flung at them and how to put 'Olympic saboteurs' in their place. [New York Times] Many Iranians were arrested and about seven were killed in connection with an alleged coup attempt against the government, a spokesman for President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr said. The spokesman said that all but two of the alleged plotters were military personnel. [New York Times]